Evidence for Re-attributing to Pierre Gassendi the Authorship of Anatomia ridiculi muris (1651) and Favilla ridiculi muris (1653)

Abstract

From 1643 onwards – almost until the ends of their lives –, the philosopher and astronomer Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655) and the mathematician and astrologer Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583–1656) were engaged in a bitter polemic. Scholars in the history of early modern science consider this polemic crucial both for understanding the debate over Galileanism and Copernicanism in France, and for understanding the decline of astrology within scholarly communities. This conflict began with the publication of Gassendi’s De motu impresso a motore translato (1642) and Morin’s subsequent critique of the author’s Galileanism and Copernican stance. As the polemic evolved, it came to include other members of Gassendi’s network, who retaliated with criticism of Morin’s astrological practices – a process that culminated in what Robert Alan Hatch interpreted in 2017 as a significant moment in the exclusion of astrology from French academic discourse. In this paper, I present evidence that two of the texts in this polemical series, the Anatomia ridiculi muris (1651) and the Favilla ridiculi muris (1653), which have traditionally been attributed to Gassendi’s pupil François Bernier (1620–1688), were in fact authored by Gassendi himself. This re-attribution casts Gassendi’s influence on the decline of astrology in early modern France in a different light, while also offering a deeper insight into his intellectual biography and into the composition of his Opera omnia.